KOLKATA: Hatchback car models occupied more news space on television at 18.5 per cent out of the 99 hour coverage put together on business, general and regional television channels in the month of January 2015, as per media monitoring agency Esha Media Research.

The study conducted by Esha Media further finds that SUVs and sedans occupied 16 per cent and 15 per cent respectively out of the total coverage for the month. 

Among the auto companies, Maruti accounted for 10 per cent of the coverage followed by Mercedes and Tata Motors at seven per cent and 6.5 per cent respectively.

Segment-wise, Maruti led the coverage in hatchback model followed by Nissan, while in the SUV segment, Volvo was ahead of Mahindra. In the sedan segment, Mercedes led the coverage with 4.78 per cent followed by Audi at 2.9 per cent.

Talking on the news trend, Esha Media Research managing director RS Iyer said the data indicates that business news channels accounted for 88 per cent of the total news coverage of 99 hours across all channels while the general and regional news channels accounted for the rest. “We intend to capture key data across several industry verticals and provide them with an invaluable analytical tool for their in-house and outsource PR professionals,” he said.

Though Ford Motors did not figure in any of the segment from news coverage, the company's executive director Don Butler appeared the most with 1.20 hours of coverage followed by Rajiv Bajaj of Bajaj Auto and Mayank Parekh of Tata Motors with 1.16 hours and 1.13 hours respectively, the report further illustrates.

Among auto experts, Tutu Dhawan held 98 per cent of pie leaving Dilip Desai and Bertrand far behind, while Adil Jal Darukhanawala was marginally ahead of Hormard Sorabjee in the anchor segment.